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• Posted August 14, 2024

US Still Last for Life Expectancy Among English-Speaking Countries

Americans continue to rank dead last in life expectancy among English-speaking countries, a new study finds.

People in the United States more often fall prey at younger ages to accidental deaths, homicides and chronic diseases, researchers reported Aug. 13 in the BMJ Open journal.

On the other hand, Australians had the longest life expectancy of any English speakers, despite their country teeming with deadly sharks, spiders and snakes.

Australian life expectancy is nearly four more years longer than the United States for women and five more years longer for men.

The United States also trails Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom and New Zealand in life expectancy, researchers found.

However, they said the findings should be seen as an incentive for goal-setting for Americans.

“Yes, we’re doing badly, but this study shows what can we aim for,” said senior researcher Jessica Ho, an associate professor of sociology and demography at Penn State. “We know these gains in life expectancy are actually achievable because other large countries have already done it.”

For the study, researchers compared life expectancy between English-speaking nations using data from the World Health Organization and the international Human Mortality Database.

The data showed that the United States has had the worst life expectancy among these countries since the early 1990s.

U.S. women live an average of 81.5 years, and men 76.5 years, researchers reported.

The Irish have experienced the largest gains in life expectancy, with men’s lifespans increasing by about eight years and women’s by more than 6.5 years.

Results show that life expectancy varies widely within the United States, depending on where a person lives.

California and Hawaii had some of the highest life expectancies, with women living 83 to 84 years and men living 77.5 to 78.4 years, researchers said.

But states in the American South had some of the lowest life expectancies observed among all the nations, with women averaging 72.6 to 80 years and men averaging 69.3 to 74.4 years.

“One of the main drivers of why American longevity is so much shorter than in other high-income countries is our younger people die at higher rates from largely preventable causes of death, like drug overdose, car accidents and homicide,” Ho said in a Penn State news release.

Middle-aged Americans ages 45 to 64 also have higher rates of death from drugs, alcohol and chronic illnesses like heart disease, Ho added.

“Some of the latter could be related to sedentary lifestyle, high rates of obesity, unhealthy diet, stress and a history of smoking,” Ho said. “It’s likely that these patterns of unhealthy behaviors put Americans at a disadvantage in terms of their health and vitality.”

Australia is a large country, and many people there use cars for transportation and own firearms, Ho noted. However, recent policies like gun control laws have helped vault Australia to the top of the life expectancy ratings, Ho said.

“What the study shows is that a peer country like Australia far outperforms the U.S. and was able to get its young adult mortality under control,” Ho said. “It has really low levels of gun deaths and homicides, lower levels of drug and alcohol use and better performance on chronic diseases, the latter of which points to lifestyle factors, health behaviors and health care performance.”  

“Australia is a model for how Americans can do better and achieve not only a higher life expectancy but also lower geographic inequality in life expectancy,” Ho concluded.

More information

Harvard Medical School has more on U.S. life expectancy.

SOURCE: Penn State, news release, Aug. 13, 2024